Regional Authorities to retrench workers

October 18, 2010 12:00 am

By CATHERINE KARONGO, NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 18 – Regional Development Authorities, (RDAs) will begin to retrench employees in the lower job groups in the next three months.

Minister Fred Gumo on Monday instructed the Managing Directors of the six regional authorities to prepare a list of those employees who should go home.

He said this was part of a restructuring process of the RDA\’s to maintain a high profile and effectiveness.

"The problem is the lower cadre because you know some people are brought there by politicians but the top positions are vacant because the salaries were very low and most of them went to other companies," the Minister said.

"The MD\’s (Managing Directors) will come back here in January with their recommendations and that\’s the time we will know how many will be retrenched because retrenchment is not an easy thing, it is a political issue," he added.

Mr Gumo said salaries would also be reviewed upwards for those who would be retained.

"We are going to increase it to the government scale because we had some people being paid very little in the system but we are now going to increase so that at least the minimum wage will be in line with the government," he said.

The restructuring was recommended by a consultancy firm hired by the Ministry to advice on the reforms that should be carried out at the RDA\’s.

"We paid them Sh2 million for this which is very little money," the Minister said.

The six regional development authorities are the Lake Basin, Ewaso Ng\’iro north, Tana and Athi River, Kerio Valley, Ewaso Ng\’iro South and Coast Development which jointly employ 1,625 staff.

At the same time, the Minister supported his Industrialisation counterpart Henry Kosgey over the recent controversial appointment of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) Managing Director.

Mr Gumo said that the Minister acted within his mandate to appoint Joseph Koskey as the new KEBS Managing Director.

"According to the Act, he could have appointed that person even without asking the board to advertise and since the board seems to have been divided, Mr Kosgey had all the powers to appoint somebody he feels is right and I support him," the Minister opined.

There has been uproar after the Industrialisation minister went ahead and appointed the KEBS boss who was ranked fourth in the recruitment process against the recommendation of the board.

However, Mr Kosgey has maintained that the appointment was based on merit.